| overview
Animation
is the art of "making live":
••• making still images move in classical hand-drawn animation
••• making objects move in puppet animation
••• making 3D objects move in ever-more "realistic"
new digital animation techniques,
••• making graphics move in interactive web and kiosk applications
••• and making a virtual world for a user to move through
in the production of immersive 3D environments.
Therefore, the study of animation is also the study the of movement and
change: how we ourselves move and change, how things in the world around
us move and change.
Our image culture is increasingly adopting the animated image over the
static image, and we are coming to expect animated images or text to assist
in guiding us through many of the screen-based operations we engage in
daily. The fact of animation suggests a live presence with whom we are
interacting: "anima", or "mind," is increasingly invested
in the machines we depend on, and animation is one of the signs of life
we look for in this relationship.
This course introduces basic concepts and techniques of digital animation
and compositing. The course will touch upon the history of animation,
and will focus on the impact of digital applications on traditional techniques.
Further, we will explore new modes of image processing and conceptualization
made possible through contemporary digital techniques. The range of techniques
studied will include effects for film/video, character animation, as well
as interactive animation. We will also look at how genres and audiences
of animation contrast those of film and video. We will focus on issues
of realism and representation that arise in the fictive world of animation,
and at the disjunction that occurs when photographic and animated imagery
are composited together.
The main software will be Adobe After Effects, working together with Adobe
Photoshop and Illustrator, and with Final Cut Pro. Students may optionally
work in Macromedia Director and Flash; instruction will be given in Flash.
Students will have seven projects to complete, but will have some latitude
in being able to work at individualized technical levels.
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